Mason Lake
by face like a moon
Summary: Derek and Meredith take a vacation from the hospital. Takes place after they're married, and is slightly AU


**Disclaimer: I own nothing. Ok, that's not entirely true. I technically own the sleeping bags, but otherwise I do not own Grey's.**

**AN: It's finals period. I'm going home in five days. I wrote this because I was stressed out. If you don't like it don't read it, but I like it. Peace =)**

Meredith rolled over to an empty bed and sighed, wondering where Derek was. She slowly donned her robe and made her way into the bathroom before wandering downstairs in search of her husband.

"Ah, good morning sunshine," Derek greeted as he saw his groggy wife enter the kitchen.

"No, on good mornings I wake up next to the love of my life. This morning I woke up to a pillow."

"Oh, I'm sorry. I guess you don't want these pancakes then?"

"Hell yeah," Meredith grinned and sat down while Derek set a plate of pancakes in front of her. "Ok, what did you do?"

"What do you mean?"

"Husbands only make amazing breakfasts when they need to apologize for something," Meredith explained through a mouthful of delicious pancakes.

"Nothing," he said, leaning in to kiss her. "I wanted pancakes this morning and I thought I should make them for you too."

"Well, whatever you did that you're not telling me, I forgive you." Derek laughed, his eyes shining as he looked at her.

"When are you off today?" he asked her.

"Seven. You?"

"Seven if the surgery goes well."

"So you're saying we could take one car this morning?"

"Sounds good to me." They smiled at each other and continued eating before getting ready for work.

Meredith was finished with her day a little early and decided to hang out in the gallery watching Derek's surgery to avoid being called in on a case. Derek was almost done, replacing the skull cap on the patient and telling the resident what to tell the family. It was no secret that the two of them were trying to have a life outside of the hospital and we no longer hanging around for any possibility of a surgery.

She watched him scrub out, noticing his features for the first time that day. He looked tired, dark circles evident under his eyes. His shoulders were filled with tension, and his eyes lacked their usual sparkle. He finished washing his hands and looked her way, his features immediately coming to life when he spotted her. Meredith smiled, and thought about how much he was going to like her surprise.

"Well, hello mi' lady," Derek said, winding his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her head.

"Hey, I was thinking, you could steal your scrubs. I have all your stuff with me, let's book it!"

He laughed. "I think that's exactly what I want to do." They turned and walked out of the hospital hand in hand.

"You look exhausted. Let me drive." Derek, who was too tired to argue, handed her the keys and climbed into the passenger side. He was asleep before they left the parking lot.

"Meredith, where are we?"  
"Oh, you're up."  
"It's eight. Why aren't we home? Are you lost?" Derek asked, looking out the window, trying to figure out where they were.

"No, we're in Purdy."

"What?"

"I'm kidnapping you. We're passing through Purdy now." Meredith focused back on the road as they went over a narrow bridge. "And now, we're out of Purdy."

"You're kidnapping me?"

"Don't worry. I asked the chief, we have the next five days off. And I'm kidnapping you."

"So, where are we going?"

"The woods."

"Mere, we live in the woods."

"Washington has a lot of woods."

"Mere."

"Derek. Seriously, you can surprise me, you can propose in an elevator, you can tell me you left something at the trailer and it will just be a quick trip, only to show me a brand new dream home on the land, and you can send me to a spa for the day, but I can't kidnap you?"

"None of those things involved dark and winding roads."

"Once we get through Victor, no more winding, just deer."

"You're taking me to the woods to kill me, aren't you?"

"Yep."

Derek sighed and continued to look out the window. "What's that?"

"Water."

"What water Meredith?"

"Case Inlet, from the Puget Sound. We're sort of on the Kitsap Peninsula. Ok, how was your day?"

"Good. No one died. It was just long."

"So can I trust you not to ask any more questions, or do I need to tell you to go back to sleep?"

"I think I'm good." The two made easy chit chat for a while, but both were focusing on the road, on the lookout for deer. Finally, they came up and over a hill then turned on to a partially paved road.

"Ok, we're here." Meredith declared, turning down a moss covered dirt driveway.

The driveway ended at the top of a hill. A cabin was visible, and when walking farther down the hill, a little bit of the lake could be seen. Meredith led the way, through the back door on the bottom floor, opening it to reveal a small but comfortable room with two couches, a really small kitchen, and a dinner table. Opening the blinds at the other end of the room revealed a sliding glass door that took up most of the wall. The door looked out on to a sizable porch, and from here Derek could really see the lake.

He walked up to her and wrapped his arms around her waist, still looking at the water. "You know, I think I like it when you kidnap me."

"I knew you would. Now come on, it's not quite dark we can go for a quick swim." She was off, grabbing her bag and racing up the small stairs that were tucked behind the kitchen.

Derek laughed, and followed her. Soon they were splashing in the lake, diving off the floating dock, and laughing like a couple of love struck teenagers. Once they were lying on the dock, enjoying each other's company, their breathing starting to slow, Meredith decided to show her true colors. Suddenly jumping up, she stepped over Derek and did a cannon ball into the water.

"You're going down," he said, jumping in after her. She squealed and tried to get away, but quickly felt his strong arms around her. They were in shallower water now, and she could stand again. Spinning in his arms, she stared into his eyes.

"And what exactly are you planning on doing?"

Within seconds, his lips were attacking hers. Her legs were wrapped around his waist, his hands on her hips. "I think," she started, slightly breathless, "inside."

"Yeah," he agreed, although neither made a move to leave the water. Slowly he began to walk them toward the main dock's ladder, still wrapped around each other. They broke apart once she felt the ladder on her back, and made their way past the fire pit, but the porch stairs, into the house, up the house stairs, and into the bedroom, their swimsuits being discarded along the way.

Derek laid her down on the bad, taking a moment to just look at her. Climbing on top of her, he leaned into her and began his assault on her lips. Meredith giggled as his hand grazed her stomach, and wrapped her leg around him. Minutes later, Derek had her screaming his name. He felt her begin to contract around him, going harder, knowing he was close too. Soon they were both screaming.

Derek looked down at Meredith whose head was resting on his chest. She twisted to look up at him, and smiled. "I'm glad I kidnapped you."

"Mmm, me too. I love you."

"I love you too." She let out a contented sigh and put her head back on his chest.

"So, where exactly are we? And how do you know about this place?"

"We're at Mason Lake. I'll show you exactly where on a map tomorrow. One of my friends from Boston moved out here for college got married, and her husband and her bought this cabin as a summer place. I've been here a few times, but just for the day. Anyway, I told her I wanted to do something special for you, and she told me to bring you here. We aren't supposed to use the big boat, but there is a canoe, two kayaks, and a row boat that we can use. She also said that there were fishing poles and stuff in the closet. And she stocked the fridge for us."

Derek smiled. "This is perfect. Thank you."

"You're welcome. You deserve it. You've been working too hard lately." It was silent for a moment before Meredith spoke again. "Did you close the door?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Because I'm too tired to double check, but there are raccoons out here."

"The door's closed. Go to sleep." Within minutes, both were breathing evenly and had drifted off to dream land.

The next morning Meredith woke up, still entwined with Derek, and basking in a shaft of sunlight coming in through the window.

"Mmmm, Good morning. What time is it?" She asked, noticing Derek was already awake.

"Six thirty."

"Why are we awake?"

"We went to bed at ten. Go back to sleep."

"Um… hang on," Meredith slowly rolled out of bed and grabbed a cover-up before tossing shorts and a tee shirt to Derek. "Come with me." They went down stairs to the small closet where Meredith preceded to hand Derek four fishing poles and a tackle box. She was carrying a second tackle box and fishing net. "Ok, I have no idea which one of these you want to use, but um, here is the fishing stuff. You can fish from the dock if you want, or the shore, but you have to stay in front of this cabin."

Derek smiled. "You really did plan everything."

"Sorry I don't know more about fishing, otherwise I could tell you where to go, but right now you have no boat. I'm going back to bed." She turned to walk back into the house, leaving him on the porch with all the fishing gear, but he grabbed her hand and pulled her back.

"Thank you," he said, kissing her forehead and letting her go. Derek began to fiddle with the poles and reels and looked through the tackle boxes trying to figure out what would be best to use. Finding an atlas inside, he determined that the most common fish in the lake were bass, and finally made his way to the dock. His first cast landed at about the floating dock but revealed no bites.

About an hour and a half later, Meredith came down with a cup of coffee for him. "Catch anything?"

"A couple of perch, but I threw them back."

"Nice. I have no idea what that means. I'm going to go back inside and start breakfast. Any requests?"

"By start breakfast, do you mean pour the cereal into a bowl?"

"No, I'm making Dutch babies. I was just asking to be polite."

"Dutch babies?"

"They're a cross between a crepe and a pancake."

"Ok, I'll be in soon." She smiled, and made her way back to the cabin.

Derek returned a few minutes before the Dutch babies were done with a smile on his face. "Look what I caught." He held up what Meredith termed large slimy.

"Um, what is it?"

"A largemouth bass. It could be lunch."

"Ok, whatever. Just take care of it before it rots."

"Why are we eating breakfast outside?" Derek asked, coming back without the fish and with clean hands.

"Because it's really nice out. Now sit down and eat."

Derek sat down and took a bite. "This is amazing."

"Thanks. We need to talk."

"Um, ok. What's going on?" Derek asked, setting his fork down and looking at her.

"Um… never mind, let's finish breakfast first. Food is good." Derek just looked at her but continued to eat. Breakfast was finished in relative silence, and the plates pushed to the side.

"Ok, so, I just, you should know…"

"Meredith, relax. Just tell me."

"Yeah, ok. Well, I'm, see the thing is, I'm pregnant."

Derek broke into a smile. "Really? That's great!" He leaned over and kissed her. "How long have you known? How far along are you? Does anyone else know?"

Meredith laughed. "Calm down. I found out last week, I'm about eight weeks along, and no one else knows."

"Oh, I'm so excited."

"Derek!" She shrieked as he lifted her up and carried her inside.

"We're celebrating."

"But we're eating breakfast."

"We finished. The plates will be there when we get back. You're pregnant!"

Meredith looked up at Derek after their celebratory act. "We should go swimming."

"You're not supposed to swim an hour after sex."

"That's eating," she said, getting up and putting on her suit. "I'll be on the dock."

"I love you."  
"I love you too." Derek watched her walk away, noticing for the first time how happy she seemed to be. Getting out of bed, he threw on his suit, and went to join her in the water.

"You're a fish. How did I not know this?" He asked, watching her dive off the floating dock and play in the water like an eager child.

"I've always liked water. I just had to spend a lot of time at the hospital as a kid. Otherwise, I tried to be near water and swimming."

"Should you be doing flips in your condition?" he asked as she did an elegant turn into the water.

"Should you be asking these questions when I have the ability to hide your suit?"

He groaned, knowing she would, leaving him to try and get out of the water in broad day light while naked. "Hey, where is everyone?"

"What do you mean?" She asked from her spot in the water.

"We're on this lake, with all these houses, and no people. Where is everyone?"

"Work. It's a Tuesday. People usually come down here on weekends."

"How big is this lake?"

"Four miles long." Meredith ducked under the water before hoisting herself up on the dock. "Wanna take the canoe out? Look around, then come back and make lunch?"

"Sure."

"Do you know how to work a canoe?"

Derek laughed. "Yeah, I know how to paddle."

"Good, let's go." She dove in gracefully and popped up half way between the floating dock and the main dock.

"You're full of surprises today."

They pulled out the canoe, life jackets and paddles and climbed in. They made their way to the larger part of the lake, which was more open and had a few boats. Turning back around, they went back down the channel, past the state park and around a corner. They entered a quiet, peaceful lagoon. The water didn't seem to move very much, and there were a few smaller fish that could be seen in the shallow water. Old log piles from a time when the lake was used for logging and had a logging mill were pushed up against the sides of the water way. Derek and Meredith paddled down to the end and stopped when they came to a beaver dam. Without saying much, they turned and headed back to the cabin.

"This place is amazing," Derek said as he grilled the fish for lunch.

"How so?"

"Well, there are boats, and nature. I don't know, but it seems like they've got it all down here. I love it."

"I like it too."

After lunch, Meredith made her way to the dock where she remained for the rest of the afternoon, lying on a lounge chair reading a book, and jumping in occasionally. Derek was beside her, enjoying the peace and quiet that was so vastly different from that of the hospital. The day ended after dinner when Meredith went to lay down in the hammock and watch Derek build a fire for s'mores. However, Derek thought she looked cold and decided to cuddle with her, and it wasn't long before she was sound asleep. He sighed contentedly and carried her back up to the room.

The next morning, Meredith woke up and noticed Derek was gone. She climbed out of bed and looked out the window, and saw him fishing on the dock. Going downstairs, she noticed breakfast had been made and was warming in the oven. She smiled, enjoying the pancakes that Derek had set aside for her. By the time he came in from fishing, she was in her swimsuit, playing cards on the table on the deck.

"Good morning sunshine."

"It is indeed. Did you catch anything?"

"No. But it's still nice to just sit out there, casting."

"I may never understand that."

"I don't expect you to."

"I was thinking, today I am going to do nothing but sit on the dock and read my book and maybe swim a little. Is that ok with you?"

"Definitely." The day panned out just as Meredith had planned. She spent most of the time reading, a little time napping and jumped in whenever she got too hot. Derek spent a little time in one of the kayaks, and swam a little bit, but stayed pretty close to Meredith's side for the day, leaving to make them lunch.

At dinner, Meredith sighed. "I don't think I've ever been this relaxed in my entire life."

"You definitely look relaxed."

"I could die happy."

"You look well rested too. Which means that tonight, we're making s'mores."

"I'm married to a five year old." Meredith said, laughing. But in reality, she couldn't wait. Dessert that night was better than any high class, snooty bakery could provide, although she couldn't quite get hers to be golden brown. Derek on the other hand, was a s'mores master, and could make them without even trying. However, Derek couldn't eat them as well as Meredith, and ended up with a lot of sticky marshmallow on his cheeks. While the fire was still going, Meredith gathered up the s'mores material and took it into the house, returning with two sleeping bags and two pillows.

"What are those for?"

"I thought we could sleep outside tonight?"

"Where?"

"The dock?"

"Sure." They zipped the sleeping bags together to make it a giant sleeping bag, and set up camp on the dock. "There is a down side to sleeping outside… bugs." Meredith produced a bottle of bug spray from the pocket of her sweatshirt. "Ok, the real down side was no sex." Meredith laughed.

"You can go one night without sex."

"Yeah, last night."

"Good night, I love you."

"I love you too." They ended up with his chest pressed against her back and his arms protectively around her middle.

When Meredith woke up the next morning, Derek was not beside her in the sleeping bag. He wasn't fishing either. She stretched her feet to the end of the bag, noticing the damp feeling that occurred from the dew. Slowly, she got out of the bag and made her way into the house. Derek wasn't downstairs, nor was he upstairs. Finally, she found a note on the orange juice in the fridge that he went out to do something and that he would be back soon, provided he didn't get lost. Meredith sighed, doubting that this could end well. She poured herself some juice, got a bagel and moved to the deck for breakfast.

Derek did make it back about fifteen minutes after she sat down. "Good morning. Sorry I left, but I wanted to do something."

"Did you get it done?" She asked as he sat down next to her.

"Yeah." He produced a stack of papers. "I'm really glad I looked at a map, because I was originally going to walk, but I decided to take the car, this is a big lake."

"What is this?"

"These are flyers for all the houses on the lake that are for sale. Some of them are out of our price range, and some of them need a lot of work, but I took a flyer for every house."

Meredith began to sift through them. "Wow, why?"

"I love it down here, Mere. I don't want to have to go back to the city tomorrow, but I know that if I lived down here, it would get old fast. So I thought what if we got a time share or something down here, but this is not the kind of place where you get time shares. So I just grabbed all the flyers I could. We don't have to look at any of them if you don't want to, but you just look so happy down here, and if we're going to be starting a family, I want the kids to be able to come to a place like this, except it would be ours."

Meredith leaned in a kissed him. "Thank you. This is wonderful."

"We would have to learn how to drive a boat. I used to know how to water ski, but maybe there are classes for that."

"Calm down, why don't we buy a place first."

"So you're considering it?"

"I would love to. Just not one of the big, fancy over the top houses. It would have to be one where we could walk in while still dripping wet, and we wouldn't care about dragging dirt onto the carpet."

"Sounds great. We could even get a sail boat."

"Oh god, you sail don't you?"

"Yep. I was the champion at boy scout camp."

"We could have people down. You know, like those commercials, where someone is bringing out a glass pitcher of strawberry lemonade and there is a picnic table filled with way to many children."

"You hate things like that."

"Pregnancy hormones do weird things to you."

"Sounds like a plan to me." They sat in comfortable silence again before Derek gathered Meredith in his arms unexpectedly. She shrieked and told her to put her down. "I think you're going to enjoy this."

"Is this because of no sex last night?"

"No," Derek grinned and carried her down to the dock.

"Derek, I already said so sex on the dock!"

"Who said anything about sex?" He asked.

"Oh, no! Dear God, no!" She screamed, right before he threw her off the dock into the water. She surfaced with a look that would terrify small children. "You are going to pay."

"I figured as much," he replied before jumping in after her.

"I am fully clothed!"

"Just go with it." Meredith looked at him for a minute, very intently. "What?"

"I'm just trying to figure out how I could jump and land on you in such a way that it wouldn't actually injure you, but it would cause you pain."

"You could pull a Lexie and break my bone, but I would appreciate it if you didn't."

"Don't wrap your arms around me; I'm still mad at you!" She declared, as she leaned into him. "You're right, I am happy down here."

They spent the rest of the day goofing off, taking a trip in the canoe and planning their future summers down at the lake. Derek joked about moving his practice to the hospital in town, and Meredith got him to take it back when she told him how many people lived in the town. In the afternoon, they went into town to go on a walk through some wet lands, and stopped to pick up dinner on the way home.

"I can't believe we're getting dinner from a shack on the side of the road."

"It's a crab shack, it's fresh."

"Derek, it's a shack."

"We could eat at Crazy Eriks Fast Food."

"The Crab Guy sounds good to me."

"We did this in the summers when I was growing up, only we bought lobster, because, well, I grew up in the North East."

"Yeah, that's weird."

"What?"

"All of it. Anyway, we have our crab, which by the way is still moving."

"Alright, let's go."

Dinner was a quiet affair of crab and salad. Dessert was down at the fire pit, although this time Derek attempted to sing campfire songs.

"That's not ok." Meredith said, as he began the first few bars of 'Just a Boy and a Girl (in a little canoe)'.

"Why not?"

"You don't have a guitar. So it's just weird. Plus, it's just you and me. Are you really trying to serenade me with camp songs that are meant for children?"

Derek smiled and leaned into Meredith's abdomen. "I see the moon, the moon see's me, the moon see's the one I long to see. So God bless the moon, and God bless me, and God bless the one I long to see."

"Ok, that's cute," Meredith said, tearing up.

"Hey, no tears. There's no crying in s'mores."

"There's no crying in baseball. There's all the crying I want when my husband does something like that."

Derek wiped her tears away and kissed her lightly. "I am so excited to be starting a family with you. And the fact that you want to come back out to this lake, although our own cabin, is just that much better."

"We still need to tell your mom."

"We should wait on that."

"What? Derek, why?"

"She will be out here so fast. If we tell her tomorrow morning, she will be at our house before we are, which is saying something considering she has to fly in from New York."

"Ok, so we'll tell her in a few days." Derek smiled and looked back at Meredith's stomach. "It seems to me that God above created you for me to love. He picked you out from all the rest because He knew I'd love you best."

"Is it weird that I already love it so much?" Meredith asked, stroking Derek's hair.

"No. If anything happened to either of you, it would be the end of me." He smiled again. "I had a heart forever true, but it left me and went to you. So guard it well as I have done, for you have two and I have none. If I get to heaven before you're there, I'll write your name on a golden stair, so all the angels up above will know that you're the one I truly love."

"I love you," Meredith said as he finished the song.

"I love you too."

"You're still here," Meredith said the next morning as she noticed Derek looking at her.

"You wore me out last night. I didn't feel like getting up to go fishing."

"I'm glad. I like waking up next to you, dinosaur breath and all."

"I like getting woken up by you too." This was rewarded with a sound smack on the chest.

"We have a lot to do today." Meredith said.

"Gotta build a castle, and go to the zoo, and visit Mother Goose in story book land." Meredith stared at Derek like he was crazy. "What? It's another camp song."

"I was thinking more along the lines of having to go swimming, pack, and clean the cabin before we leave. I have instructions on what to take with us and what can stay behind, and how to secure the waterfront, but I don't really know what that means. The directions make sense though."

"Alright, let's get to it," Derek declared, pulling her into a passionate kiss.

"Seriously, no."

"Fine." Derek got out of bed and looked like Meredith had kicked his puppy. "Swim first?"

Derek and Meredith went for a swim, packed up, and cleaned the cabin. While they were packing the car, Derek made a proposal.

"I think we should drive around the lake, just to get a look at it."

"I like that idea." Their drive allowed them to think about what kind of things they could do with their own cabin, who they could have down, and what they could teach their kids.

"I would want to take them innertubing. I hear it's dangerous."

"Derek, seriously. It's not even born yet, and you are planning on how to endanger it?"

"No, I'm planning on how to give it a thicker skin."

"You're terrible. Oh, look at that one," Meredith pointed out a medium sized cabin that was for sale.

"No, it's on the wrong part of the lake. Mark and Lexie would enjoy it a lot. Alex and Izzie and their entire clan would like it down here. It could be Seattle Grace off hour's headquarters."

"Perfect. With strawberry lemonade of course."

"With strawberry lemonade."

They completed their drive, both of them thinking of a few places to look into further. Derek said he would call a realtor in the next week, and Meredith smiled, thinking that this could really happen.

"I don't want to go back home. This week was too perfect," she complained as she got into the driver's seat.

"I know, but we will have many more perfect days in the coming years, I promise."

"Promise promise?"

"Promise promise."

They continued their drive away from Mason Lake, into Allyen, past the chainsaw art store, the latte stand and the pier, through Victor, across the bridge into Purdy, over the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, back through Seattle, and finally back to their house.

Later that night, while they were cuddling in bed, Derek laughed. "Thank you," he said, kissing Meredith on the head.

"For what?"

"For kidnapping me. For reminding me what it's like to relax. For the perfect week."

"You're welcome. It was my pleasure."

"I love you. Both of you."

"We love you too." They fell asleep that night with the truly happy feeling of the week still present in their mind and with excitement and hope for the future of their family.


End file.
